Jay-Z Says "Yeezus" Helped Kanye West Find His "Place Of Expression"

In the years since the release of Kanye West’s debut album, The College Dropout, the Windy City emcee has craftily channeled his creativity through music, fashion, and more. And according to Jay-Z, West’s former Watch The Throne collaborator, the rapper has just recently found his “place of expression” with the release of Yeezus.

During part two of Jay-Z’s interview with BBC Radio 1, the topic of Kanye and his creative endeavors was brought up by BBC personality Zane Lowe as he compared the rapper’s Yeezus album to a piece in an art gallery.

“He’s always been striving for this moment. Just to find the place of expression,” said Jay-Z, in regards to Kanye. “Through whatever medium it is. Right now it’s music. He wants to do fashion. He’s trying to master all that.”

While some may have critiqued Kanye’s recent musical experimentation, Jay-Z went on to refer to what Kanye’s doing as something that’s not only good for Hip Hop, but “good for music” in general.

“It’s good. It’s good for music. Forget Hip Hop, it’s good for music. Just to have those souls like that…are pushing it forward. Someone to look at it and they’ll take that piece of art on the wall and say, ‘Oh okay, I know, had he moved this around here and it could have been more accepting and you could’ve brought in more people. It speaks to more people. Had he just taken this and moved that and moved that.’”

Released today (July 16), part two of Jay-Z’s interview series with BBC Radio 1 tackles issues of fame while the first part in the series centered primarily on the rapper’s twelfth studio album, Magna Carta Holy Grail.